????MAFIA POSSESSION ????????
( HIS ADDICTION ????)
BY, ROYAL DIADEM ❣️
CHAPTER 12
CAROLINE’S PRAYERS had been answered. Here was another captive. They
could escape together. Caroline could already taste her freedom. The darkhaired woman raised her hand in a shy wave. “So, what are you in for?” It
was a joke.
Maybe she’d been a captive for longer than Caroline and come
to terms with it, or maybe she was using humor as a coping mechanism.
Caroline reached out to take her hand, to make a connection, but she
flinched away with a look that said clearly, ‘don’t touch me.’ She hoped shedidn’t scare her and grabbed her own arm instead.
Maybe she’d been hurt.
Caroline couldn’t tell the twins apart unless they were together, but it was
either Alessandro or Antonio who captured this woman. “I was kidnapped.
He brou-ght me here.” She still wasn’t sure where ‘here’ was, and this
woman seemed surprised to hear that she’d been kidnapped. “My name is
Caroline Wells. Maybe you saw in the news I was missing?” Wishful
thinking. She knew no one would notice her absence. She told everyone she
was going out of town for a while. She hated how she played right intoLuca’s hands.
The woman shook her head with narrowed eyes. “Why did they kidnapyou?”
Caroline tugged at the loose shirt she put on. “I don’t know.” She didn’t
have time to explain her vendetta against the Morettis or the occupational
hazard that ended with her unconscious in Luca’s car. They had preciouslittle time to make their escape.
Caroline shivered involuntarily. “I could be dead any minute. I’ve beenhere for days,” she exaggerated, but there was hope on the horizon. “But now we can escape.” She reached for Lorna again, and Lorna took another
step back.
“Listen, I’m not here to save you,” she said.
Caroline stepped forward again, the shadow of a plan forming. It would
be risky, but any escape plan would be. “Now is our chance.” She couldn’t
keep the excitement out of her voice. “They’re distracted, we can sneak out
the back-”
Lorna stopped her with a hand in the center of her chest. “You severely
misunderstand your situation.” She held herself with authority and looked
down her nose at Caroline. “I am not a captive. I’m with them. If they want
you dead, it’s not my place to argue it.”
Caroline blinked. “What?” So Lorna was not another captive. She was
working with the Morettis? A dark, doom feeling settled in the bottom of
Caroline’s stomach. But hope was her only weapon, and she couldn’t let itgo.
Lorna walked into the kitchen and Caroline followed her like a lostpuppy.
But in all fairness, Caroline was lost and felt a lot like a puppy who
had just been kicked across the room for no reason. Lorna opened the fridge
to find something to drink. “I’m not going to save you.” She took a can ofsoda.
Caroline couldn’t believe this. “You’re really the kind of person whocan see someone about to die and just walk away and do nothing?” Even ifLorna weren’t a captive, she could still help Caroline. It would still be the
right thing to do, and it wouldn’t even be that difficult. All she would haveto do was keep the men distracted while Caroline snuck out. Maybe giveher a car key.
Lorna popped open the can and said nothing, watching Caroline withdismissive disinterest. Caroline knew there were terrible people in theworld, god did she know. But she had been content to think that only the
Morettis were terrible people and that most other people were inherentlygood. “I didn’t do anything wrong,” she explained, hoping maybe Lorna
was mixed up somewhere. “If you think I deserve this, I don’t.”
Lorna walked out of the kitchen, back into the living room. “No onedeserves anything, and life isn’t fair.”
Caroline followed her. “You said you’re one of them? Why are you herethen?”
“A weekend retreat. The woods are so lovely in the springtime.”
Sarcasm. What did Caroline do to deserve sarcasm?
“I don’t believe you,” Caroline said. She chewed her li-p, trying to figure
Lorna out. “You really wouldn’t care if they killed me? How heartless do
you have to be—”
“Heartless is not the word I would use.”
“What word would you use? Callous bit-ch ?” Caroline was more than a
little annoyed. They were wasting time. Luca and whichever twin brou-ght
Lorna here would be back soon, and Caroline wouldn’t forgive herself if
she didn’t even try to run.
She sighed. “Look, I’m not your savior. I’m not your executioner, either.
I don’t know why you’re here, and it’s not my place to interfere.”
Caroline picked up a vase from an end table, face contorted in anger.
Lorna didn’t have any right to taunt her like this. Her life was not a joke
they could throw around and dangle just out of her reach. She hated being
forced into a corner.
Lorna tutted. “What are you going to do? Throw the vase at me?”
“Yes.” Caroline lowered her chin, determined. Lorna thought she
wouldn’t. Lorna thought she was better than Caroline somehow, and
Caroline resented that. It was stupid stubborn pride, but Caroline hadn’t had
control over anything in too long and throwing the vase might actually be
thera-peutic.
“And what does that accomplish exactly?” Lorna switched her soda to
her other hand. “You make a mess, Luca comes back, he’s upset. What does
that mean for you, I wonder?”
“Shut up.” Caroline raised the vase to throw it. It would be thera-peutic
to smash an expensive vase into a stuck-up bit-ch . It’s not like the Morettis
would even miss one little hundred-dollar vase.
A noise outside.
The boys were coming back in. Caroline should have
felt scared, but she just felt angry and frustrated. She’d been spinning her
wheels for too long and not getting anywhere, and it was exhausting.
The door opened at the same time she threw the vase. Lorna stepped out
of the way and the vase smashed against the wall beside her in a satisfying
burst of water,
flower petals, and shards of colorful porcelain. Beautiful andwonderful and thera-peutic for the briefest moment.
Luca and whichever twin he happened to be a-ssessed the damage in
silence for a moment. Luca was the first to speak. “Caroline, what are youdoing?” His voice was the kind of calm that made her blood run cold.
“She goaded me into it.” Caroline hug-ged herself and looked at her feet.
Deflecting the blame was childish, but not untrue.
The twin disregarded Caroline and brushed a petal off Lorna’s cheek.
“I’m sure that’s true. Lorna is the goading type.”
Across the room, Luca folded his arms over his chest. “We’ll all besharing the cabin for a few days, so I suggest you learn to get along.”
Caroline’s heart sank. She glanced up at Lorna, who returned hergrimace. And Caroline had thought being alone with Luca was the worstthing she could imagine. Bitterness boiled in the back of her throat. Shecouldn’t run. She couldn’t escape. She couldn’t even sedu-ceLuca. No onewas coming to save her. There was no way out.
TBC